What will Polaroid develop next?

Posted by Eric Benderoff at 7:33 a.m.

Polaroid has been stepping up its game of late, introducing products that are rekindling the magic of its pioneering instant-print technology. For Thursday’s Tech Buzz column, I reviewed the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera. (Read the review here or watch the video below.) It will go on sale in March for $199.

But Polaroid is not done, and perhaps sometime later this year, we’ll see other “instant print” products with larger paper (the PoGo prints 2-by-3-inch images, not the old 4-by-5-inch style of yesteryear) or perhaps a mobile phone that can print pictures.

John Pollock, vice president of digital imaging at Polaroid, said the company is looking next at the commercial market. The two PoGo products—last year’s stand-alone printer and now the camera—are targeted mostly at consumers.

"There’s a lot of commercial products we will be looking at," he said during a recent interview. "A lot of people have been schlepping around printers."

These people work in fields where instant prints can come in very handy, like insurance, real estate, law enforcement and medicine.

"As we talk to more people, they tell us printing has become so cumbersome," he said. "With the PoGo camera, there is no thought process involved."

Indeed, you just hit the print button when you see an image you want. (You can do minor cropping and red-eye fixing first.)

Here’s an interesting stat Pollock shared:

Of the hardware Polaroid sells—based on the old cameras and the PoGo printer (left)—75 percent of the units go to consumers. But 60 percent of the photo paper is bought by commercial users.

"The burn rate is so high for commercial," he said.

That segment also wants larger paper—like the old Polaroids—so there’s a good bet that’s what you’ll see next.

As for phones with a built-in printer, “that’s not part of our road map right now,” Pollack said.

Of course, there is a big issue clouding these plans: Polaroid filed for bankruptcy protection in December, the second time in seven years. The first time was because the company was not ready for the digital transition.

This one is because the company that bought Polaroid got itself into a financial fix.

"Polaroid's financial condition was compromised by the apparent fraudulent acts perpetrated by the founder of Petters Group Worldwide, Polaroid's parent company, and certain of his associates," the company said in a December statement. "The Chapter 11 process will provide Polaroid with the opportunity to restructure its balance sheet and reduce its debt to ensure the future health and sustainability of the business."

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